Margaret Gaj 1919-2011

national | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Monday June 27, 2011 01:55 by R

The death has occured of Margaret Gaj (nee Dunlop), a founder member of the Irish Women's Liberation Movement. She is survived by two sons, three granddaughters and three grandsons. She had other relations in Scotland but at this point I do not know their details.

Margaret Dunlop was born in Glasgow in 1919 to Irish parents.
She was a pacifist and conscientious objector. Rather than joining the army in 1939 as her two brothers and sisters had done, she instead opted to join the Red Cross as a nurse. While a nurse she met and married a wounded Polish soldier, Boleslaw Gaj. He had been captured when the Germans invaded Poland but escaped and served as an electrician with the RAF.

At the end of the war Margaret and Boleslaw moved to Ireland. She later set up a restaurant in Baggot Street. She was active in human rights issues and the restaurant became a focal point for many activists and political figures. Many of the early meetings of the Irish Women's Liberation Movement were held there. She was also instrumental in the formation of the Prisoners Rights Organisation in 1973.